


Home Away from Home

by lakesinstillness



Series: Buck-Tick Road Trip Fics [1]
Category: BUCK-TICK
Genre: Alternate Universe - America, Alternate Universe - Road Trip, M/M, Non-Sexual Tease and Denial, Road Trips, Surprise Kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-10
Updated: 2019-06-10
Packaged: 2020-04-23 21:48:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19159636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lakesinstillness/pseuds/lakesinstillness
Summary: Atsushi and Imai are on a road trip down the I-95. Late at night, Atsushi is craving Cracker Barrel, but all Imai wants to do is get to the hotel and get some sleep before he has to drive the next day.





	Home Away from Home

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this fic a month ago when I came home from college. My parents picked me up, and I was hoping for Cracker Barrel on the way home, but it didn't happen. On the way home, I came up with this fic idea (with some inspiration from John Mulaney's The Comeback Kid) and wrote it at like 3AM. From the way I was writing about it, I think I was just sad I didn't get Cracker Barrel.

When it came to traveling, Imai and Atsushi were quite different. Imai wasn’t particularly impatient, but he always preferred getting to his destination as quickly as possible, avoiding making unnecessary stops. If they would only be able to visit their destination for a few days, it seemed illogical to be wasting time on things along the way. Atsushi, on the other hand, was able to appreciate the journey, not just the destination itself. He couldn’t wait to get to whatever vacation spot he and Imai chose--which this time happened to be Orlando, Florida--but fun pit stops on the way prevented him from getting bored on the ride. Those little stops were probably the only thing keeping him from just taking planes everywhere; sitting in a car while only stopping for gas and to use the bathroom made him so impatient.

At first, Atsushi didn’t ask Imai to stop at Cracker Barrel. They had done it on previous trips: gotten hungry in the middle of the night and stopped in for a way-too-early breakfast. So Atsushi assumed his bandmate would do it again. He kept thinking about how fun it would be, how his eyes would light up when he saw Imai get off at an exit, how his stomach would growl as they would pull into the parking lot, how the headlights from their car would turn off, leaving them with only the tall neon sign to illuminate their walk into the store, which somehow smelled like home more than home did, how he would look around the store while waiting for a table, figuring out what he’d buy once they finished their delicious breakfast. The fantasy of it had the vocalist salivating, and he was so excited for Imai to finally get off at one of the many exits that had a Cracker Barrel.

Imai knew that Atsushi always enjoyed Cracker Barrel; so many of the unnecessary knick-knacks that filled their home were from that store, and Atsushi always brought those little syrup bottles home with him. But still, all Imai wanted to do was get to the Hilton Inn where he booked a room for the night. Just a few exits shy of the Georgia-Florida border, the hotel seemed perfect; if he got there early enough, he would get a good night’s sleep, wake up early, and they would be in Orlando around noon. But in order for that to work out, they would be unable to take any stops that night. Even if Imai still managed to wake up early the morning after an unnecessary stop, he knew the man sleeping next to him would be impossible to wake up. And once he did get Atsushi up, he would just ask for them to have breakfast in the hotel. He’d say, “I love making waffles in their cool waffle maker!” or something silly like that, whether they stopped at Cracker Barrel the night before or not. So Imai just kept driving, praying the man in the passenger’s seat wouldn’t ask him to stop.

As Imai drove down the I-95, Atsushi looked outside the car window, his eyes focusing on the restaurant signs for each exit. He would also occasionally check the time on his phone, hoping Imai would get hungrier with each minute and would eventually stop at a Cracker Barrel. As time passed, however, Atsushi realized the driver wasn’t going to stop. At first, he assumed his bandmate didn’t realize he wanted to stop, and figured he’d hint at the idea. “Hey, Imai, that next exit has a Cracker Barrel.”

“Yeah,” Imai responded, his eyes focused on the road, "a lot of them do.”

The passenger decided to push further. “Isn’t it interesting how that store-slash-restaurant manages to seem so unique despite having so many locations? They always make you feel special, too. I wonder how they do it.”

Imai figured out what Atsushi was trying to do at this point, but he didn’t care. If Atsushi wanted to stop at Cracker Barrel when they were heading home from Orlando, that would be fine; they would have time then. But now, all Imai wanted to do was get to that hotel and let the sound of the air conditioner lull him to sleep. So, he decided to ignore Atsushi’s hints. “You sound like you’re going to write a song about it.”

Atsushi laughed at this comment, but persisted. “That would be interesting. Maybe I should. Something about how I always want it, but how I especially want it when it’s late at night and I’m on a road trip. About how I just left home, yet home is everywhere. Because on every highway in the United States, there’s a Cracker Barrel, and Cracker Barrel feels like home.”

Imai turned up the radio a bit during that monologue; Atsushi’s nonsensical profession of love for that yeehaw restaurant was distracting him. “If you want to do another solo album, go ahead. But I refuse to let you ruin Buck-Tick’s next album with a song about a store. What genre of music would even fit that song? I’m not going to write country, if that’s what you’re hoping for.”

Atsushi could his bandmate was teasing him, but he didn’t care. All he wanted was Cracker Barrel. “That’s not what I’m hoping! You know what I want from you, Imai.” The guitarist turned up the radio even more. “You have no idea how long I’ve been craving their food. I haven’t been to their store in so long, too; they probably have all new stuff!”

The radio was blasting at this point. Imai would do anything to avoid listening to Atsushi beg like this. “We don’t need any more shit from that store. Trust me.”

“I want to go there so badly! Please get off at the next exit. Please!”

“We’ll go there on the way back, Soosh. I promise.” Imai tuned Atsushi and the radio out, focusing instead on changing lanes.

“We were planning on going then anyway! Please, Imai, it’s so much fun! We have so many good memories there, and I’m super hungry!”

“It’s just a store.”

“But I’m hungry. And even more important than that, it’s more than a store!”

Imai turned the radio off, which must have taken Atsushi aback because he stopped speaking. He pulled into the rightmost lane, and got off at the exit.

Just as Atsushi expected, he became filled with excitement. “Thank you so much!” The guitarist turned right, in the direction of Cracker Barrel and a few other restaurants Atsushi didn’t pay attention to. “I knew you’d understand how I--.” He drove past the entrance to the Cracker Barrel. “Imai, what are you doing?”

Imai pulled into the McDonald’s drive-thru, and finally took his eyes off the road to look at the man in the passenger’s seat. “I didn’t want to stop, but your whining exhausted me. Do you want anything?”

Atsushi crossed his arms and averted his gaze from the other man. “No, I’m fine.”

“Don’t be like that. If you’re hungry, you can get something now. We stopped anyway. Or did you just want to stop at Cracker Barrel for the novelty of it, and weren’t hungry at all?”

“I was hungry. Your lack of consideration for my feelings spoiled my appetite.”

Imai pulled up to the mic and placed his order: a single black coffee. After driving to the pickup window, he turned back to Atsushi. “Does it really mean that much to you that we go to Cracker Barrel?”

“No, it’s fine. I don’t want to go anymore. I’m tired, and you’re right. We’ll go on the way back home.”

“Thank you for understanding.”

As Imai pulled out of the drive-thru with his coffee, he could tell Atsushi was still angry. But he wasn’t planning on stopping, especially when his boyfriend was in such a sour mood. So, they spent the rest of the ride in complete silence.

They made it to the Hilton with decent time. As he pulled into the parking lot, Imai noticed the Cracker Barrel across the street. Once the car was parked, he turned to Atsushi, who was staring at the building across the street. “If you get up early tomorrow, we can stop there before we leave,” Imai said.

Atsushi turned to him and smiled. “Really? Are you sure?”

“We’d have breakfast anyway. Might as well enjoy it.”

The two of them got out of the car, took their bags out of the trunk, and started walking to the hotel entrance. “Imai. You planned this, didn’t you?”

“What are you talking about?”

Atsushi was going to respond, but the sudden blast of the hotel air conditioning distracted him, and their conversation stopped for a moment while they checked in. As Imai spoke to the lady at the front desk, Atsushi took one of the peppermints that were sitting on the desk and popped it into his mouth. He got in the elevator first, held it open for Imai, and then pressed the button for their floor. “You booked his Hilton on purpose.”

“No, Soosh, I didn’t know there was a Cracker Barrel--.”

The vocalist interrupted his boyfriend with a kiss that lasted the entire elevator ride. The warmth of Atsushi’s lips distracted Imai from the chilly air that had been bothering him since they entered the air-conditioned building, and Imai found the bittersweet taste of peppermint refreshing. “You don’t have to play dumb. Thank you, Imai! You dealt with my whining the whole car ride just because you didn’t want to spoil the surprise. It must have been hard for you, and I really appreciate it.”

Imai chuckled as he slid his keycard into the hotel room door. “I really didn’t know about it, but whatever makes you happy.”

As Imai finally got into that soft, clean bed and began to let himself be lulled to sleep by the sound of the air conditioner, he thought about what just happened. Atsushi really kissed him over Cracker Barrel. A Cracker Barrel that Imai didn’t even plan on going to, nonetheless. As silly as the context was, however, it was a very sweet kiss. Traveling, especially by car, was sometimes stressful and exhausting, but the kiss made Imai feel at home, despite them being in a random Hilton in Georgia. Finally, Atsushi found a good use for that mouth of his.


End file.
